Three Sentence Ficathon 2022 Part 2

[rthstewart]

UPDATE 14 FEBRUARY 2022 -- 3SF 2022 IS NOW CLOSED TO NEW PROMPTS!  Do continue to fill prompts already posted but the 3SF 2022 is now closed.  We'll be back next year in a new comm (If I can get my act together).  Thank you again!

THIS IS THE NEW POST FOR PART 2 OF THE 3 SENTENCE FICATHON -- ALL NEW PROMPTS SHOULD BE POSTED HERE
You may continue to fill prompts (but not leave new ones) at the original Post 1 here but please post new prompts here, not there.  And if you're asking, hey is just me, or did this get enormous really fast? Why yes, yes it did.  Last year, it took us ten days before I opened a new post.  This year, it took us about 5.5 days to get there.  So, by all means, go back and fill in Post 1 and post new prompts here!

Also woops, in an indication of how busy I've been with other things, I neglected to post that for a third year in a row the awesome conuly  started a master list of unclaimed prompts and has been updating it as time permits.  Obviously a huge task! Thank you!

 

Welcome to the Three Sentence Ficathon!

Here's a Friending meme!

What is the 3 Sentence Ficathon?
This is an open exchange where you answer a prompt with a fic consisting of only three sentences. It's open to all fandoms and you can post and fill as many prompts as you like, as many times as you want.

What do I do first?
You can start 3SF by posting prompts! When posting a prompt please format it this way:

fandom, character(s), prompt word/sentence.

Only one prompt per comment please. So, for example,

Star Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi, I don't like sand."

Open ended and anthropomorphic fills are popular too, such as:

Any, Any, "I don't like sand."

or

Earth geography, sand, "I don't like humans very much, either."

What happens after that?
You answer other posters' prompts in three sentences (or more if you can't stop yourself) and fill as many prompts as you want, as many times as you wish. If you see that a prompt you loved has already been filled, go ahead and fill it again! Multiple fills of the same prompt are allowed and even encouraged! (We get really fun stories going this way).

Can I still post if I need more than 3 sentences? Or should I just abuse grammar in ways the English language never contemplated?
Yes. Yes.

But I'm not a member of Dreamwidth
No problem. You can comment anonymously or through open ID

I'm really overwhelmed by all the prompts and how much there is and how fast it goes. I can't read 1,000 prompts and fills. It's too much.
I hear this a lot and it keeps a lot of people from participating. The 3SF is big and it moves fast, especially at first. I get overwhelmed, too, and I'm hosting the thing. With 2020 and 2021 sucking so badly you don't want something that's supposed to be fun cause you anxiety. I have a couple of suggestions for managing the 3SF volume.

• First, really, you don't have to read every prompt and fill on every page. You can start at the last page of this and just go forward, or back a page or two. It's fine.
  
• You can come and go as time and energy allow, you don't have to participate the whole time, and it drops off quite at bit after about 2 weeks and especially once we open a new post because this one is approaching 4,500 comments.
• Even after the 3SF and new prompting end, people fill prompts all year long.
• You can fill an already filled prompt and you can can leave a prompt that's already been prompted before. People do it all the time.

Always make sure you're looking at top-level comments only, not threaded. That helps a lot. Your screen should look like this.




But shouldn't I read everything to see if someone already prompted the same prompt I want to leave if someone already filled it?
No. Prompt as many times as you want, as much as you want. It doesn't matter if someone prompted the exact same prompt. Go ahead and prompt again!

I left a prompt and no one filled it. Can I prompt it again?
Absolutely!

Can I spread the word?
Yes, please. I generally fail at creating banners and embed codes but if you create one and make it really idiot-proof, I might be able to post and share it. Feel free to cross-post this entry. If you create your own banners or icons, let me know and I'll share!
Please share the 3SF with your followers, friends, and any channels and comms you are active on. I'll post on fandom calendar, Tumblr, and Twitter, but I don't have many connections in other spaces such as Discord.

Here's my attempt at a text box that might go horribly awry.

<br /><a href="https://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/172142.html" _fcksavedurl="https://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/172142.html"><img src="https://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/file/71907.jpg" _fcksavedurl="https://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/file/71907.jpg" alt="" title="3 Sentence Ficathon 2022 Banner" /></a>




How long will it go?
The 3SF closes to new prompts on February 13, 2022. The entry stays open permanently and people post fills all year long. (There were a bunch of new posts to the 2021 3SF this week!)

Are there any rules about cross-posting?
Nope, you can post wherever you want, whenever you want. A lot of folks collected their responses together and posted them on AO3 under the 3 sentence fiction tag. 3SFs are a terrific prompt for remixes and could be helpful for Yuletide bears, too.

What about spoilers, content and archive warnings, triggers, pairings, ratings, tags, and squick?

I thought a lot about this. It boils down to reader beware. In my experience, this typically gets too big, moves too fast, and the stories are too short for content warnings and ratings to even apply. It is too big for me to moderate in this way. You should assume spoilers are fair game and that the initial poster and the responder have opted to use no content warnings or tags. This means AO3 content warnings for dubcon, violence, canon character death, underage, etc. COULD be present (and much more). I've found personally that I can skim and scroll by stuff that, from the prompt, I can tell isn't my favorite flavor of delicious cake. Use your best judgment, protect yourself, and be prepared to skip over things that aren't your thing. In this format, the obligation is on you, the reader, to protect yourself from triggering content.
Some posters do include warnings and spoiler tags or include spoiler space, but they don't have to do so.


Why is 3SF split among several posts? That seems confusing.
It is confusing and we always lose momentum once we have to move to a second post. The reason is because at 5,000 comments to a single post, DW installs a human test CAPTCHA, which is a pain for users. So, once this entry gets to the upper 4,000 comments, I open a new post. If you've been waiting until things slow down to participate, when we open a second post is often a good place to join.

If I have questions, what do I do?
I'm rthstewart everywhere, here, Twitter, Tumblr, gmail and AO3.

A special thank you to conuly .
Last year, Conuly started logging all unfilled prompts.
This year's (2021) unfilled prompts are here.
Last year's (2020) unfilled prompts are here.

Conuly asks that you not reply, as they want to be able to edit and add more prompts to the list.
 

Here, have some icons and banners and let me know if you've created your own!

Comments

Dragonriders of Pern via SouCon MUSH's Xanadu Weyr

[chanter1944]

"Uh-oh, look out, that lad's got someone in mind--!" Eelie turns at Z'ran's half-chuckled exclamation, gaze fully caught, though it's plain that beside him, Jenessa's still trying to somehow split her attention between the newborn lapis lazuli blue dragonet dashing across the sands and his sister, a small and compact creature of cloudy jade who, despite cracking shell at almost exactly the same moment, is taking her relative time for consideration (and a brief, shard-removing head toss besides). Candidates scatter as that blue arrows for someone on the far side of the crowd, and it's with a swerve and a creaky sort of snort that dragon meets lifemate - a skinny fisherfolk boy from Old Monaco Hold lands, laughing and quite unhurt, on his backside in the sand when his determined blue thwarts his second attempt at dodging with an unmistakable 'yes, you!' muzzle-bump to both shins - and as for that cloudy jade green, she makes a half-minute's quiet inspection of the nearby candidate line before singling out a taciturn southern hall's Healer apprentice lass for her own.

[arveldis]

Thank you! ❤︎

Re: Narnia, Cor & Aravis

[arveldis]

Thank you! ❤︎

Re: Tumnus

[arveldis]

Thank you! ❤︎

[arveldis]

The angst got away with me on this one! I've often wondered, though, what it might be like for Aravis to leave everything she's ever known and live among people who view her people as the enemy. Hopefully she would have a much better time in Archenland than she does in this, but it's something that I've always wished was explored more in the books.

SG-1, Jack O'Neill, Daniel Jackson, Teal'c -- lost who knows where

[cofax7]

Dennari had moved Jack out of the tavern after the second time Jack started a fight with one of the customers, so Jack helped Teal'c shovel manure in the side yard, while Daniel hustled drinks and filched bread crusts from the tables, which they shared in the barn after everyone else had gone to bed.

They had tried--desperately--to keep track of where they were, but the slave trade was extensive, and they'd changed hands several times, if always as a team, for which Jack would have said a rosary every night, if he'd had one; Dennari wasn't the worst by far, but he was dumb as a stump and had never seen the Stargate, much less passed through it.

The point was, they had no fucking idea where they were, and they were down to their last scrap of grit, or hope, or just rage-fueled refusal to die--when Jack looked over the fence and saw John Fucking Sheppard strolling down the lane, with an Atlantis patch on his shoulder and that eight-foot-tall Runner at his side.

[(Anonymous)]

Any, any, songbirds

[dariaw]

Watching the news, Sam started gripping the kitchen chair tight, leaning on it instead of crumbling down on to the ground, refusing to cry or scream or anything else the bastards probably wanted him to do.

Bucky, probably on instinct, walked in, saw the news, and wrapped his arms around Sam.

Sam swallowed, closed his eyes, and for a second, he wanted to fall into Bucky, bury his head in Bucky's neck, and he wanted it so badly it felt like a sear into his skin. But he pushed away, not looking Bucky in the eye.

Bucky loosened his arms but still held on, moved in to whisper, a soft rasp in Sam's ear, "Look, I know you're going to do your job and I've gotta let you. But I'm the guy who holds up the guy who holds up the shield. And you've gotta let me do my job too."

He moved slowly, tightening his embrace cautiously around Sam's waist, and Sam found himself leaning against Bucky, his mind still somewhere as else as Bucky held up his weight.

Re: original work

[dariaw]

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

The Scientist's Nephew

[adaeze]

Listen to your first task. I see we are in a large city. Procure for me at once a rocket, or flying saucer, or gengineered steed, or whatever is usual for officers of the highest rank in your sector.

The Voyage of the Dawn Ramjet

[adaeze]

"There's some strange technology at work here" said Caspian.
"Magic!" said Eustace. "I do believe we've come to a civilized country at last."

[dariaw]

You watch the greatness of Troy crumble away, scattering into Greek ships, a few captives and vases and bronze shields at a time, the greatest of cities dissolving into the sea a little more every day.

You know precisely what it means to shatter slowly; that's what it felt like to be married to Menelaus.

You hate yourself for the pain you've caused, but you recognize it, remember it deep in your bones, and so you can look at it directly, without flinch.

[anonne]

"What …" – Cloud's face came into view, confused but less blank then usual – "what … are you doing?"

Aerith stood up, fingers tapping on her staff, and the mouse scampered away as if it hadn't been lying still and stiff two minutes previously. "Nothing you need to worry about," she assured him.

Final Fantasy X, Auron/Braska

[anonne]

Braska would bring the Calm, if he went into Zanarkand and offered himself; he would be pardoned his supposed heresy, and Auron would be welcomed back by the monks, his brothers, with open arms; and Jecht, perhaps, would learn what he needed to know about how he had made the journey to Spira, and how he might find a way back to the city he loved.

It would be the right thing to do, for everyone's sake: admit that Braska was willing to do this, let him go forth and see his name inscribed in the lists of High Summoners, watch his statue being erected in some temple a few quiet years down the line. But shamefully, selfishly, there were things Auron valued beyond all of this: the sparkle in Braska's eyes, the lightness of his smile – the warm beauty of his kisses, the way his body so perfectly occupied all the spaces left by Auron's own, the safety of his embrace – and all the reasons in Spira would never be enough for Auron to let him go.

[alexseanchai]

any, any, not crying

[alexseanchai]

any, any, no pressure

[alexseanchai]

any, any, what else can I do

[alexseanchai]

any, any, waiting for a miracle

[alexseanchai]

any, any, we don't talk about [fill in the blank]

[alexseanchai]

any, any, all of you

[alexseanchai]

any, any, two caterpillars

Though I Can’t Recall Your Face (Greek Mythology, Penelope/Odysseus)

[vialethe]

As she takes apart the day’s weaving her hands have accomplished, Penelope remembers the early days of her marriage, the explosive arguments that raged from peristyle to gardens to bedchamber, their passions too wild, too unrestrained, too much.

“Two clever people married to each other is a poor idea,” Odysseus would say, once they had collapsed in sweat and giggles, the ferocity of disagreements forgotten; until she reminded him that it had been his idea, in truth, and the cycle would spin anew.

And now, now that every creeping coward for miles circles her like a pack of hungry dogs - now Penelope dreams of pulling his bow from the wall, forsaking the string as she has been forsaken, and clubbing them all to death with their own impotence, all the fierce rage of a decade and more released in a howling lust for blood; instead she pulls the threads free with a woman’s patience, one by one, careful not to let them snap (as though they were his lifeline, as though they were hers).

I’ve Missed You All This Time (Greek Mythology, Andromache/Hektor)

[vialethe]

When her brother Etocles finds her before their father can, tells her that Priam’s heir has come down from the great city of Troy to ask for her hand, she laughs in his face, so absurd is the idea; there are scrapes on her knees, bits of bracken in her hair, the scent of horse lingering about her person; she is hardly anyone’s idea of a queen.

When she discovers the truth of it, she assumes the true wealth of her father is the desired goal: the horses, bred for strength, beauty, war and glory, a far more impressive prize than she could hope to be, for Hektor is a well-known horseman, respected for it even by she, who respects so few.

When she meets him for the first time, she expects little and less, expects a man who will dismiss her as one more piece of baggage, just the price he must pay; so it is that he takes her by surprise, all dark curls and intense gaze, a look that sees right through her and enjoys the view, she thinks, and watches the warmth in those eyes as he speaks a single word: “Andromache,” her life spinning off course, contained in the lyrical syllables of her name rolling across his tongue.

Capture It, Remember It (Greek Mythology, Andromache/Hektor)

[vialethe]

“Be fearless,” he says to her, eyes firm on hers, the battlefield commander in him speaking, as though she were part of his phalanx, and so she nods, grasps his hand tight, and feels his kiss on her brow like a blessing before he flees the room, herded out by a flock of women, clucking and fussing; almost, she laughs to see his confidence vanish in a flash, if not for the pains that wrack her.

Long after the sun falls, she presents him with their son, watching the quiet joy in his eyes enfold them both.

For that moment, the storm outside is far away, and Andromache is content.

Miss Marple

[smallhobbit]

Susan was surprised to find herself in the library of a country house, with an elderly lady sitting knitting quietly in one corner. It seemed so very ordinary and peaceful. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Death of Rats and knew some things never change.